As any of the Drawn Combat team would tell you, I love me a bit of theme. I’ll happily take a hero which has a fluffy ability or gimmick if it gives me a laugh in game - it’s why models such as Aldor, Grima and Bill the Pony melt my cold. Dead. Heart. With the latest iteration of MESBG, the devs saw fit to key in on theme in the form of Legendary Legions: historical forces from The Lord of the Rings packed into a cohesive list showcasing those present in certain battles. ‘You can make these already’ I hear and you would be right to say so, only with the Legendary Legions you tend to lose your army bonus and instead pick up a few special rules. In this series, I, your humble fluff-lover Steve will have a look at the Legions currently on offer weighing up the pros and cons based on my limited experience in the game, and also just how damn thematic they are.
Rangers of Ithilien
Basis: Faramir’s rangers, the bunch who’ve been ambushing mumaks, defending Osgiliath and capturing Hobbits.
Personally I’ve always had a soft spot for the rangers, it was my first D&D class for starters (and heavily followed the colour scheme at that). Whilst not the strongest of forces in Middle-Earth, they do have some of the best shooting and this is put on display by losing the bow limit in warbands with a ranger commander - offsetting your less than average defense by softening up the enemy from afar. A lovely little addition however is taking Faramir’s defense of Osgiliath into account in the form of the Osgiliath Veterans - more expensive than your standard Warrior of Minas Tirith but who cares about that when these are the guys who defended Gondor's capital under Boromir and Faramir? At least this way the force gets a good bit of frontline defense and fighting, although depending on your points limit you may well want to go full bows purely to use the forces’ greatest strength.
The nicest inclusion of this however has got to be taking Frodo, Sam and Gollum into account. Whilst cost heavy for all three, they do add a nice little dynamic to the force - especially by having the One Ring allowing you to pull off some tricksy objective securing and pans to the face. It’s a solid ranged legion to use, although does depend how many opponents you might annoy with a constant peppering of arrows.
Fluff Verdict: 6/10
Whilst it’s a good scene from the films, the legion feels a little one-dimensional and where the large basis of this score comes from - they’re a shooty force, so they’re going to shoot. One addition which could have boosted the fluff score however would maybe be a special rule regarding ‘Faramirs’ quality’ and his treatment of the hobbits besides being just prisoners not able to lead a warband.
The Grey Company
Basis: Get Used to Tracking All Your Wounds, Might, Will and Fate - The Movie
Movie is a little inaccurate, as this legion is based much more off the books showcasing Aragorn's merry band of heroes on their way to Pelennor. What is accurate however, is the micromanaging you’ll be doing with all your spendable points in-game. The legion comprises of nothing but heroes with your cheapest being the Rangers of the North at 30pts basic, so regardless of your points allowance - you’re looking at a small model count. What you’re not lacking in however is sheer combat power. All the rangers are boosted to two attacks, and you have some very respectable fight values across the board. Like any hero-cenctric list however, one bad round of dice rolls can heavily hamstring you and playing objectives can be made that much more difficult.
The crowning parts of the legion on the other hand are undoubtedly the free Anduril for Aragorn making him a machine in combat and Halbarad wielding the Banner of Arwen Evenstar - one of the best banners in the game. With such a hero heavy list that could easily perish at the hands of a bad roll, that boosted re-roll range can be a lifesaver. This does however come with the drawback of keeping your force very tightly knit in order to take advantage, reducing your objective play.
Fluff Rating: 7/10
It’s great to see a company coming predominantly from the books, and inclusion of Elladan and Elrohir is a nice addition given their brotherly rules. Whilst there aren’t many special rules for the list outside of the bonus Stand Fasts and free Anduril it’s still fun as a little ‘what if it happened in the movies’ legion.
The Army of Gothmog
Basis: I don’t like Men, and I have a very convincing way of removing them.
The quintessential Minas Tirith raiding party. Gothmog, a strong hero in his own right gets his very own force featuring the Morannon all stars their lackeys. A little (although quite minor) downside to this legion straight off the bat is that most of the heroes are Forge World only. That being said, they are great units - providing nice buffs to your surrounding troops and helping your maneuverability. Aside from that, it’s an extremely orc-y force with the troops being made up of Orc Warriors and Morannon Orcs and a few heavy hitters in the form of trolls and siege units. The main strength of the legion comes from Gothmog himself in which lies its greatest strength, and weakness. Gothmog’s abilities are on full show as they get a healthy boost, giving most of your army the Hatred (Men) special rule, and for one turn only giving the entire of your force on the battlefield re-rolls to wound. If there was ever a turn-swinging ability, it’s this one. Of course the flip side is that if Gothmog dies (and especially before he triggers Time of the Orc), a lot of the legions potential is squandered.
The skill it seems in this list is using your heroes to correctly navigate and engage your fairly basic troop selection, and choosing the right engagement to trigger Time of the Orc. But if you’re a fan of big beasties, you still have access to the Mordor Troll so it’s not completely without hard hitters.
Fluff Rating: 6/10
Whilst the list is an extremely good representation of the force used within Return of the King, it does lack that certain bit of flavour I look for in the Legendary Legions. It’s special rules are essentially just a magnification of Gothmog’s standard abilities and doesn;t bring a whole lot extra to the table. Certainly a great legion to play with (and against, especially when you’re fielding Eowyn to deny Gothmog!)
Next time I’ll be looking at three more legendary legions, but what do you think about my (certainly fluff biased) opinions on these ones? Let us know in your comments and discussion!
Until next time flavour-lovers!
Hi from one noob (kindof) to another! Thanks for your blog articles, they've been a treat to read! I think LLs are a fun way for GW to keep adding new variety and tactical challenges to the meta without having to devote the major money necessary to release lots of new models, which is great! The LLs that allow you to bend the rules (eg fielding an all-ranger Ithilien army) seem more interesting than the ones that simply reward you for limiting your options within an army list (even if the all-bow-army example of the Rangers is a bit annoying). From a themey perspective, an elven cloak upgrade to the rangers of gondor would have been cool (with woodland creature on the base profile... why they lack it I don't understand). Also, does the Grey Company LL allow the characters to be mounted? If not that's a flavor fail! (I understand there's no model for mounted RoTN.)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the rest of the series!!